Ammo Time Again

[Seven]

Richard, after doing a bit more checking around, I'm guessing that this may well be a small batch of rounds that Speer produced and then decided to 'orphan'.  That would make sense as to why Ammoman has it on 'close out'.  Price turns out to be about 34 cents a round, so it's not WWB, but that's still like a third of what GDHPs go for.

So, it's basically a crapshoot - Speer has a good name (and my pup prefers the Gold Dots), but there is little else to recommend this ammo.  Hmmm...still haven't decided whether to plunk down the $ for a trial (you have to buy 500 rounds...)

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[Richard S]

Seven:

The price of 34 cents per round is good, but since the 500-round requirement raises the ante to $170 it makes for a pretty interesting crapshot.  Good luck, if you decide to go for it!    

[Seven]

The price of 34 cents per round is good, but since the 500-round requirement raises the ante to $170 it makes for a pretty interesting crapshot.

Aye, there's the rub.    Ammoman has a money-back guarantee, but probably not if I shoot the stuff first to see how I like it.  

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[Seven]

Well, I'm in a gambling mood, so made the order for the 90 grain frangible from Ammoman.

I'll let people know what I think of it once it arrives and I have a chance to test it.  I figure at the very worst, I've got practice ammo for just twice the usual price...
 

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[Richard S]

Seven:

I do like to see a fellow "player" take the plunge.  Let's me know I'm not the only one out here.   Good luck!

If that does indeed turn out to be an orphaned batch of frangible Speer "hot rods" which are compatible with the R9, you might be able to recoup your investment by a few odd-lot sales around here . . . .      

[Seven]

Yeah, Richard, I like livin' on the edge.  

Say, what are the rules for private individuals mailing ammo?  Anyone know?  I have another buddy who has a R9s who I am going to ship a couple of boxes of this stuff to so he can try it, and I need to figure out what the dance is.

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[Reinz]

You can only ship by private carrier.  That means not by mail.
I've checked into it recently and called the Postmasters office.
 
I also checked with some gun shops and they said they get ammo by mail all the time.  But being in a post 911 world now, I sure don't want to put MY butt on the line to save a buck.

I ended up shipping by UPS  or  Fed EX ground.


Reinz

[theirishguard]

FedEx has told me that they will not ship any ammo by company policy.     Tom

[Seven]

Thanks for the info on shippers, guys.  Just spent some time poking around the UPS site - gah, finding simple, easy-to-understand info is almost impossible.  Will probably just go to the local outlet and talk with people there, see what they say.

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[Reinz]

FedEx has told me that they will not ship any ammo by company policy.     Tom

 

I could not remember how I last shipped my ammo, I guess I shipped UPS.   I just go to my neighborhood shipping store and let them do it all.  I just knew it could not go by mail.

Reinz

[Richard S]

This link may be helpful regarding the legal requirements for shipping ammunition:

http://www.cartridgecollectors.org/shipping.htm

[Brenden]

UPS ground..

Put the ORM-D "label" on the pkg.

Your good to go!!

So FedX no longer doing ammo?
I could swear I received a s--t load delivered by them not too long ago..

This is how they will restrict transfer of legal goods!! By NO ONE shipping an item!!

Brenden

[Richard S]

Occasionally, there will be a local agent of FedEx or UPS who either does not understand or chooses to ignore both Federal law and the corporate policies of his or her employer regarding the shipment of ammunition and/or firearms.  One of my FFL clients started having such problems recently with the local agent of his carrier of choice.  A letter to the corporate vice president/general counsel resolved the matter, as they say, "overnight."    

[Seven]

So...

The ammo arrived today.  It comes in a typical Speer Lawman box of 50, but is clearly labeled on the end of the box "90 GR. Frangible CF" and lot no. G15K21

Bullets themselves are in brass casing, with the profile similar to Gold Dots, though a tad shorter.  And where a GD has a rough hollowpoint with a fairly deep well, this has a smooth hollowpoint that is pretty shallow.

Lawman ammo goes for about $12 a box in 9mm, plus shipping, so maybe I got skunked at $16.90 (shipping included), but I didn't get ripped too badly.  And the lighter weight bullet should be faster - the specs between the 115 GR and the 124GR lawman are about a 10% decrease in both velocity and energy with the 9 GR additional weight.

Anyway, I'll have to wait and see how they perform, first chance I can get out to the range.  Perhaps this weekend.

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[Seven]

Hey everyone,

I got out for the first time today to give that ammo a try.  Because our property is still a mess with snow and ice, I decided to just start out with a limited experiement.

Hard to determine exactly what it means, but here were the results:

Firing into a bucket with 12" of sand.  Using the R9, Gold Dots  and Winchester Personal Protection (both 115 grain) ammo both performed as expected, mushrooming very well and penetrating 3 - 4 inches.  115 grain WWB penetrated 6 - 7 inches, becoming blunted but basically maintaining shape.  The 90 grain Speer Frangible was noticeably crisper out of the guns, penetrated to 10 - 11 inches, and showed little or no change to shape.  Yeah - the 'frangible' maintained the best structural integrity.

Did the same series using my Steyr S9, same ammo (except the Gold Dots were 124 grain +P, which went a little deeper), got exactly the same results.

Now, I only fired a few rounds of each ammo from each gun, so clearly, more experimentation with the new ammo is called for.  But my preliminary conclusion is that the frangible is a hotter, faster bullet with much better penetration, at least when shooting into sand.

What does it mean?  I dunno - I welcome thoughts on the matter.

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